My intention with this blog is to post the projects I’m currently working on and to create a gallery of previous projects. You’ll see if you follow me that I’m interested in a lot of different kinds of sewing but with a primary focus on textile art/art quilts. My one in 7 billion Baby Lock dealer who has become family to me keeps all my girls tiptop so that when I’m not cooking, cleaning, baking, or focused on laser arts (more on that later) I can sew the day away! I know there are other fantastic machines out there so no hate or prejudice here; just love for great machines, a spectacularly talented dealer (Berger’s Sew and Vac if you’re in northern Virginia) and continuous education and experimentation. Not everything I do works out the way I intended but I’ll put it all out here. No claims of perfection or expertise will be found here.

Sewing is fun for me (as long as I don’t have a seam ripper in my hand) and my sewing room reflects how I feel when I’m in there. I’ve had to expand into a second room that is a touch more subdued but I’ll show you my primary sewing space for now with more to come later.

This is my most recent completed project. It’s an art quilt that started as an experiment but turned out better than I thought it would. My husband created the orange wooden mount out of plywood; it’s the first time I’ve mounted anything to wood and I rather like it. I feel like it makes the work more permanent. I was inspired to create several pieces by my friend Elena’s trip to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The piece above is more textile art than sewing in that the top 2/3’s of the work is made of some sections of fabric, yarns, wool fibers, and several entire spools of thread. I wasn’t happy with the color mix of the abstract flowers; I don’t think it works, but it was the first time I’ve used embroidery floss and couched yarns for stems and I do rather like the texture. Perhaps fewer flowers and a more cohesive palette for a bigger version. This piece was highly experimental.

The flamingos are laser cut (we have a 100 watt laser cutter that is LOADS of fun for a textile artist as well as a huge time saver) and it’s the first piece I mounted to plywood (sanded, primed, and painted by my wonderful husband 💜) and I very much like the look. It feels more finished and permanent to me this way. I plan to mount some of my older works in this way over time.

I’m working toward uploading a photo gallery of my creations. I’m not sure when I’ll have it complete so here are a few other pieces to give you a sense of what is to come.